It appears more loan seekers are presenting movable assets to the collateral Registry to secure loans from banks.

This is evidenced by the number of enquiries made by banks from the registry especially about the movable assets submitted by individuals and businesses in their loan applications.

Lenders have traditionally demanded immovable assets such as houses, lands and other valuables. But it looks like this trend is changing with this development.

Registrar, Mike Oppong-Adusah tells JOYBUSINESS this is encouraging and will help improve credit flow to businesses.

“About 82 oercent of registration is made up of movabales and the remaining for immovables. Provided the lender accepts it - even your wrist watch can be used to obtain a loan from a particular financial institution” he said.

The registry which was established in February 2010 is managed by the Bank of Ghana. It is aimed at ensuring that assets used as guarantee for loans are actually worth their stated values. The registry as at December last year had registered 95 thousand collaterals and 20 thousand searches. Over 150 thousand institutions are also connected to the web-based registry.

Mr. Adusah also adds that they are receiving requests and searches from not only banks but also non-bank financial institutions.

“Beside the financial institutions even individuals and law firms are all searching on our system to know the level of encumbrance of any particular asset they plan buying before making a decision to buy”